Las Casas Filipinas de Azucar is next to the water. Picture: Daniel Scott Source: Supplied

Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar is like a living museum. Picture: Daniel Scott Source: Supplied

AFTER trawling through the teeming suburbs and industrial surrounds of the Filipino capital, Manila, and driving for two more hours through endless fields of sugar cane, arriving at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar is like being transported back to the 18th century.

We enter the complex of reconstructed colonial buildings via a cobbled entrance way, go round a fountain and stop in a courtyard outside a fine-looking mansion.

After crowded modern Manila, I'm struck by the way this village of nearly 30 historic buildings spreads out behind the Luzon Sea. As the group members are shown our rooms in another heritage house - Casa Meycauyan, dating back to 1913 - I breathe in the cooling sea breeze.

After settling in and playing with the anachronistic television and air-conditioning, we regroup for dinner in the adjacent Cafe Marivent.

Set in another reconstructed colonial building, the lavish 1839 Casa Unisan, it is an opportunity to sample Filipino cuisine. Local favourites include two rice-cake desserts, "binbingka", which is topped by a salted egg, and the purple-coloured "puto bumbong".

Demonstrations of the "Tinikling", the Filipino national dance, and various regional jigs follow dinner, delivered by local teenagers who perform with visible delight.

Then amid a flurry of good-natured giggles, the dancers entice those of us without two left feet to try the "Tinikling" ourselves.

I am already sensing that there is more than historical reconstruction behind Las Casas Filipinas.

Its ethos also seems to include a wistful longing for childhood joy and innocence.

The next morning, strolling around the grounds before breakfast, that feeling is underlined by the sight of numerous statues, showing children at play, scattered among the old houses.

One prominent sculpture depicts "palo sebo", a traditional Filipino game in which kids attempt to climb to the top of a greasy pole.

It is this statuary and the chance to sample enduring Filipino culture and cuisine that give Las Casas the atmosphere of being a living museum rather than merely a collection of historic buildings.

At breakfast, our acquaintance with Filipino cuisine grows, as we chomp through sweet "longanisa" sausages made from cured pork - together with pickled papaya and garlic rice.

Keen to preserve his country's history in one community, in 2005 he began acquiring colonial buildings from around the Philippines and reconstructing them at Bagac.

Surrounded by brilliant green rice fields, backed by mountains and with the River Umagol twirling through it, the 400ha site now encompasses numerous mansions and a colonnaded shop building - Paseo de Escolta - with hotel suites on its upper floors.

Also being constructed are a large church and a replica of a two-storey, 16th-century building from Binan, south of Manila, which once housed a movie theatre and a bank.

"Mr Azucar wants to preserve our architectural treasures," says our guide Harlene as she shows us around the community, "rebuilding them brick by brick and plank by plank."

"In many places and particularly in Manila," she continues, pointing out a wall riddled by bullet-holes, "our old buildings have been damaged by war and earthquake or have been overwhelmed by urban sprawl."

The buildings' interiors offer a refined snapshot of another era, bedrooms featuring hand-carved four-poster beds and bathrooms with claw-foot baths. Time and effort has gone into getting every detail right.

But what brings the history alive is the resort's deliberate invocation of childish fun, as I discover when we reach the games room, where our guide Mendoza is joined by colleague Maria Clara to demonstrate traditional Filipino games.

From the moment they begin playing "piko", a local version of hopscotch, our guides' infectious laughter begins filling the room.

On the last afternoon of our stay, we set off on a more serious mission: to explore the moving World War II history of the surrounding Bataan peninsula. It was here that Filipino and American forces made one of their last stands against the occupying Japanese army.

Las Cas Filipinas is just 20km from the Shrine of Valor at Mt Samat, a moving monument to the sacrifices made by Filipinos and Americans.

Nearby Bagac town is also where the appalling Death March began, in April 1942.

This 128km, brutally imposed movement of up to 80,000 PoWs following the Battle of Bataan, claimed as many as 10,600 Filipino and American lives and was later declared a war crime.

In 1975, Japanese Buddhists erected a Friendship Tower, close to the start of the march. It acknowledges the events and symbolises ties between the Philippines and Japan.

Although Las Casas Filipinas developer Acuzar has faced protests from heritage campaigners for trying to relocate some old buildings away from their original towns, the concept of the heritage village is even winning local people over. For them, as much as it does for overseas visitors, this enchanting resort opens an authentic window on the past.

The writer was a guest of Philippine Airlines and Las Casas Filipinas.

Las Casas Filipinas, Bagac, Bataan are 152km northwest of Manila via the North Luzon and Subic-Clark-Talac expressways. Turn left at the Friendship tower in Bagac, continuing for 2km.

Accommodation starts at 3825 peso ($A91) a night for a deluxe studio (for two people). Two-bedroom heritage houses start at 15,750 peso. Casa Meycauyan, which can accommodate up to 10, costs from 29,750 peso.

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